Santa dos and don'ts

It's long, but pretty interesting. It's the story of a family that takes the magic (or the deception) of SantaClaus to a new level. In the wake of a certain nameberry mega-troll, I've gotten to thinking about SantaClaus. How important is it in your family to create an atmosphere of magic around Kris Kringle? How far would you go to deceive your children in the name of Christmas spirit? What's your warmest memory of SantaClaus from your own childhood? Do you remember the moment you learned he wasn't real? As parents, how do you handle BEING Santa? And what special tricks do you have up your Santa sleeves this year?

I am very interested in this thread. As a child I was always told that Santa was fake. Never once in my entire life did my mother ever say to me or any of my siblings that there was such thing as Santa, and she actually very adamantly said that he was not real, so we couldn't silently believe.
I always felt superior as a child, like I knew a secret only for adults and all of my other friends weren't mature enough to hear it yet, but I'm having my first child and really wondering if I'll follow in my mom's foot steps or go the Santa route.
Side story: My cousin is my age, and when we were thirteen she came in and was waving around a Santa hat thrilled that Santa had signed it while he ate the milk and cookies she made. She was very serious.
That was too far. If your kid is old enough to make their own cookies for Santa it's time to come clean.

We don't do Santa with our son. I mean, he has books that people have given him about Santa, we're not hiding Santa from him. We just aren't telling him that Santa is a real guy. He is only two right now, so he doesn't get it yet. But we plan to tell him that Santa is a fun game that people play at Christmastime, and that he can't spoil the game by telling other people that Santa isn't real.

My husband did not grow up with Santa, so he thinks Santa is kind of weird. Then his mom got remarried and he had new stepsisters who did grow up with Santa and all of the sudden, there was all of this Santa! Presents from Santa, leaving milk and cookies out for Santa, his mom pretending she could hear sleighbells- no discussion about it at all. He just found it confusing and weird.

My parents were really devoted to us believing in Santa, though. They kind of took it too far. I kept asking if Santa was real and they kept swearing that he was- this is embarrassing, but I was in middle school before I finally figured it out. I was really upset that they had lied to me about it (I am sure that a lot of this came from being an angsty pre-teen. And also being embarrassed that I still believed in SantaClaus in sixth grade) I remember I asked them for a list of all of the other thing they lied about.

Seriously, I think it would have been fine to raise us with Santa. I don't think it's really damaging or anything. It's just that I kept asking and they kept saying things like, "don't you trust us? Of course there is a SantaClaus! You have to believe in him!" I really don't know why it was so important to them, this went on for way too long.

We're not going to do Santa. In our religion, we have our own thing. For the Norse, Odin brought gifts. You would leave straw out for Sleipnir and Odin would leave you presents. And if you are bad, Krampus gets you (that isn't Norse particular, that's just a Germanic thing). I don't think we're going to do Krampus because he's terrible, but I like that I could say "Well, in our religion, Odin brings presents. Better be good because the All-Father won't bring you presents otherwise!" But she's going to know she'll always get presents from us, but if she's not good, she won't get a special present from Odin.

And we're going to tell her that other people believe in Santa and that's fine. It's just different for everyone.

All that being said, she's still getting a picture with Santa for her first Christmas.

For my own childhood, the daughter of one of my moms friends told me when I was 5 that Santa (and all the other stuff kids are supposed to believe in) were fake. So we did the Santa thing, but only sort of. We put out milk and cookies but we all knew mom and my step-dad were eating them. That's about it. We've got a picture of me when I was like 3 on my grandpa's lap as Santa and I'm looking off camera with this "Oh brother" look and my eyes rolled so obviously I never really believed much. :P

My parents were (and are) pretty devoted to the Santa thing, almost to the level of the parents in that first story. Some years, my sister and I would wake up with presents in our bedrooms--a new quilt covering us, a stuffed animal in our arms, that sort of thing. One year, when "Santa" entered my room, I was still awake and peeking through my eyelashes, and could distinctly see the silhouette of a chubby person with a beard. I would later learn that my mother had dressed up as Santa on the off chance that one of us would wake up. Now that is commitment.

My parents had lots of help, though--there's a Santa in our area, colloquially known as "the real Santa," who just sells it. He's ready with logical explanations for all the Santa lore ("How do I get into your house? Not the chimney anymore, I use a skeleton key. How do I get around the world in one night? Time zones, duh. And I don't make all the toys, I have deals with all the major toy manufacturers!") which all sound very plausible to a kid. He also has an uncanny way of reading children; he's like SherlockHolmes or something.

I stopped believing in Santa when I was 10 or 11 years old, right around the time it was starting to get embarrassing. Then I kept up the charade for my little sister's benefit for the next two years, then we had one Santa-free year before my brothers got old enough to understand the Santa thing. We're still keeping up the illusion for their benefit; they're 9.

I think I'll do the same crazy level of commitment for my eventual future kids; I liked experiencing that magic. I also think I'll tell them the truth once they hit fifth or sixth grade, depending on their maturity level, because being a middle schooler who still wholeheartedly believes in Santa would be rough.